The Taboo
by PhoenixGirl513
Summary: After Ed & Al bust Shou Tucker for his illegal human chimera work, Tucker decides to reveal the secret the Elric brothers have spent four years trying to hide. With their goal still in mind, and new obstacles in their way, how will the Elrics handle the newest repercussions of the ultimate taboo? (Re-write of an older fic of the same name)
1. Prologue

**Hello! Look who's back!** Heh, sorry. Remember this? I took it down a while ago, since I couldn't figure out where it was going and could not, for the life of me, keep up with a weekly upload schedule. You guys deserved better than that, after all. So I took way longer than I should have to re-write some stuff and ta-da! The new and improved Taboo fic! Enjoy!

**I DO NOT OWN FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST OR ANYTHING RELATED**

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Much to his surprise, Edward Elric's mind was an even darker hell than it could be on a bad day. To someone who didn't know, the reason would seem obvious; he had just watched a poor, defenceless little girl painfully fused with her dog into a talking chimera, by her own damn _father_ no less. That was more than enough to depress anyone, let alone a teenager with some preexisting daddy issues of his own. But oh no, Edward had a knack for depressing himself in many unique ways, when his mind thought he deserved it. Of course he was devastated about Nina, and worried about her, but the final nail in his sanity's coffin was the fact that even with all his power, he could do absolutely nothing to help her. He had stood in front of the poor girl while she watched him beat her bastard of a father senseless. Hell, she'd actually tried to stop Ed from hurting him further. He had looked straight at her and, even after being praised as a genius and a prodigy by many, the Fullmetal Alchemist was entirely powerless to help her. Now, depressed and grief-stricken, Ed sulked on the steps of Central Command, flanked by his brother Alphonse and weighed down by much more than just his automail. He could barely hear the thundering of rain on Al's hollow body over the mental beating he was currently inflicting on himself.

"We're only human, goddammit." Ed mumbled to his shoes as if they'd have an answer, continuing his former speech in a tone just loud enough for Al to hear.

"That's true, brother." Al said gently, like a parent coaxing a child to bed. Next to that, though, there was a definite sadness in his voice as it rang through his armour. "Which means if you don't get out of this rain soon, your flesh ports will hurt even more than they do now. I don't want you to get sick, so let's at least go sulk someplace warmer."

Ed gave no response to his brother's half-hearted efforts to lighten the mood, instead choosing to sit in silence, feeling overall shitty and wondering how Al knew that his ports were aching. Al had always been inquisitive like that, even back in Risembool when they were little kids. Back before they had tried to bring their mother back to life, and Ed had put him in that cold, unfeeling body-

_Great, _he thought, wiping his eye angrily with a sodden sleeve, _now I'm dwelling on something _else_ feel guilty about._

After another good few minutes, he stood and stretched, glad that the rain running down his face hid the newly formed tears brimming his eyes. He tried not to wince when his stumps protested rather loudly at the sudden movement, and focused instead on softening his expression from a scowl to something more 'optimistic'. "You're right, Al," he said in a gentler, albeit tired tone, patting his flesh hand on his brother's shoulder. "'Sides, we don't want you rusting." He rubbed the back of his neck, struggling slightly to muster up the courage to stand straight, so as not to worry Al, and focus on his footsteps.

Al stood as well, his seven foot frame towering over his brother. Ed shoved his hands in his pockets and they both turned up the steps, with nothing more to be said, and neither having the energy to say it. As they trudged into Central Command, they barely heard the footsteps of some stranger walking past, not over the four o'clock tolling of a huge clock nearby.

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**There you go!** The teeny prologue! If you liked it, please feel free to drop a review! Could be a paragraph, could be one word, it all really means a lot to me. Hell, even follow or favourite the story if you think it was worthy. Until next week!

Oh, and whoever can tell me what that bell toll was gets eternal admiration.

-Phoenix


	2. Early Morning (chapter 1)

Wow, look! This got a review! Many thanks to the guest who left it!  
And what's this? A chapter actually uploaded on time? Heresy I say!  
But yes, it's true. I have uploaded on time. *confetti*  
So yeah, please enjoy, and drop a review!

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At six AM the next morning, the Elrics were up and walking briskly through the halls of Central Command, bound for one office in particular. While it would normally be worrying for Edward to be up so early, and honestly, still was worrying, he couldn't help it. He'd had a miserable night and gotten about a collective ten minutes of nightmare riddled sleep, and leapt up as soon as it could be considered morning. He had too much weighing on his mind to "piss around any longer".

It didn't help that all his waking hours had been taunted by images of Nina, what she had been and what Edward had let her become. He had more than one more thing to be guilty about now, and if he was ever going to get the tiniest bit of mental peace, he needed information.

After about two minutes of walking, receiving odd looks and ignored greetings from officers, they burst in to Colonel Mustang's office, Edward having forced the door open with his foot. They entered to the sight of Mustang, asleep on a pile of paperwork that Ed could have sworn was built into a pillow.

"Mustang!" Ed growled.

Roy's head jerked up from the desk in alarm. "Wha- oh, it's just you." He rubbed his face tiredly and cleared his throat. "Well Fullmetal, by all means, come in…"

"Oh cut the crap Mustang," Edward seethed, plopping into a chair in the office, "It doesn't suit you. And anyway, I have more important things to discuss now." Ed rested his right ankle on his automail knee, and couldn't stop his right knee from bouncing with anxiety. Alphonse muttered an apology for his brother's behavior, and sat across from him.

"That's _Colonel_ Mustang to you, pipsqueak," Roy started, pausing for effect. When Edward barely flinched, he slouched a little and continued boredly. "And secondly, what could possibly have _you_ of all people traipsing around my office at six in the morning?"

Ed cast an angry sideways glance to the Colonel. "You couldn't guess, you-"

"We need to know," Al cut his brother off, earning a dissatisfied grunt from Ed, but nothing more. He looked to Mustang. "Well, what will happen to Tucker? What will they do with Nina?"

Roy glared a little, but let the outburst slide. Groaning, both out of fatigue and frustration, he shuffled through a folder and produced an official-looking document. He then cleared his throat and read it aloud.

"The 'Sewing Life Alchemist', Shou Tucker, is to be stripped of all military titles and executed on account of his continued crimes, including but not limited to Human Transmutation, unauthorized human experimentation, and torture leading directly or indirectly to death."

Edward paused, sitting on that outcome before responding. The term "Human Transmutation" made him shift in his chair. After a moment, he simply stared ahead and asked, "And Nina?"

Roy put down the paper and reached into the same folder for another. He gave Edward a look, but understood that this was something he needed to hear. After all, these documents were only confidential to the general public, and if he didn't tell Edward, he'd find out anyway. He smoothed the paper and read, "Nina Tucker will be taken to a-"

Just then, Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye burst into the room, cutting off the Colonel. A discreet look of urgency was displayed on her otherwise carefully neutral face, and she held another folder. It was just one, though, enough to know that this wasn't an ordinary paperwork dump.

Roy put the paper back in it's place and calmly got up, saying, "Excuse me." And nothing more. He met Riza at the door, who whispered something to him, hand over her mouth. She cast a concerned, sympathetic look to the Elrics, before saluting and walking off unnecessarily briskly. Roy stood still for a moment, staring at the floor. After a second he composed himself and returned to his desk.

"Well?!" Edward stood up, crossing over to the large desk and gripping the edge. His gloved right hand made a louder than anticipated _thunk_ on the wood. "What will happen to Nina?!"

"Nothing." Roy stated simply, his face carefully neutral.

"What do you mean?" Alphonse walked over to the desk, standing next to his brother. Even without facial expression, one could tell he was as anxious as his older brother was.

Roy frowned slightly, but looked straight into Edward's eyes, not one to cower away or coddle.

"Nina Tucker is dead."

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There! A feels sucky chapter. Yay.  
SO, thanks for reading! Make sure to leave a review, and favourite or follow if you think it was worthy. Ciao!


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